Jet skiers wearing out their welcome

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, February 25, 1996

ANOTHER battle in the war between jet skiers and everybody else is under way, and once again the only solution seems to be banning them from the rivers.

This time the fracas is on the Smith River in Del Norte County, located in the northwestern corner of California, where county supervisors voted this week to support a new ordinance that will ban jet skis and other motor vehicles from most of the river. The law will take effect pending two more public hearings.

This is part of a major trend across California and much of America against jet skis, or "personal watercraft," as they are officially known. More and more they are being banned or restricted to eliminate potentially dangerous user conflicts - not to mention outright fistfights - with boaters, fishermen, swimmers and windsurfers.

When operated in wide expanses of water, away from other people, jet skis pose no hazard. But that's not what usually occurs. Instead, they are often run at high speeds near the shoreline, making daredevil blind turns around points and in coves, putting anybody in their paths at great risk.

In California, the problem was first addressed in 1989 when the state attorney general's office issued an opinion that local governments had the power to pass local boating ordinances. Immediately, bans on jet skis started being enacted in most parts of the state. The first major action was in Pacifica, the coastal town south of San Francisco, where jet skis were banned in the surf zone along five miles of beachfront to protect surfers, swimmers and fishing conditions.

Since then, jet skis have been restricted in dozens of areas. For instance, they have been banned outright at Fallen Leaf Lake near South Lake Tahoe, Collins Lake in Yuba County, Scotts Flat Reservoir near Nevada City, Lake Spaulding near Emigrant Gap and Butt Valley Reservoir near Chester.

In other places, including dozens of lakes in the Tahoe and Eldorado national forests, local ordinances often mandate speed limits of 5 or 10 mph, resulting in a tacit ban on jet skis without a political confrontation.

Another solution has been to designate specific areas for jet ski use while banning them elsewhere. That is the case at Englebright Lake near Marysville, one of the best recreation lakes in the West with its series of beautiful boat-in campsites. There, jet skiing (and water skiing) is permitted only below an area known as Upper Boston. San Diego has taken a similar approach at Mission Bay, where the use of jet skis is only permitted in the southern part of the Bay.

Many local officials are still unaware that the state has granted them the powers to set boating laws for their local waters. As this information becomes available, and if the present trends are any indication, it is likely many more bans and restrictions will be forthcoming.

Showtime again

Three sports shows with special-interest appeal are coming up:

* Great Outdoor Adventure Fair: The theme is outdoor recreation, focusing on rafting trips, exotic travel, rock climbing, biking and general outdoor adventure. It runs Friday through Sunday at the Concourse in San Francisco. $7 for adults, (415) 777-7120.

* Waterfowl Exposition: This all-day, family-style event is sponsored by the California Waterfowl Association. It features displays of wildlife art and hunting shotguns, as well as providing information on vacation trips. It is set for Saturday at the Concord Hilton Hotel. $7 for adults, (916) 648-1406.

* San Mateo Sportsmen's Show: A new fishing and hunting show with 350 exhibits in two halls will make its first showing at the San Mateo Expo Center, March 6-10. $8 for adults, (415) 574-3247.

The money game

According to an audit of the Department of Fish and Game, hunters and fishermen pay an average of $35 per year to the DFG while resident taxpayers contribute an average of only 11 cents apiece. That means outdoorsmen are paying nearly 100 percent of the costs for endangered-species management, oil-spill cleanup, toxic-spill inspection, streambed permits and other non-game management and administrative costs.

Notes of note

* Hunters win showdown: In Mono County, which includes the Mammoth Lakes area and Inyo National Forest, a proposal to ban shooting and hunting from 14,000 acres of national forest has been reduced to 2,000 acres as a buffer zone near popular recreation areas.

* Another DFG snafu: According to last year's catch logs, rockfish account for 93 percent of the sportfishing boat industry and 83 percent of the total marine catch in California, yet the DFG has announced it will cancel the management program that monitors rockfish abundance and the effects of commercial fishing on populations.

* Solving muddy water: High storm runoff and poor water clarity has temporarily killed the trout fishing at many Bay Area lakes, but there is still excellent clarity at Lake Merced North in San Francisco, Shadow Cliffs Lake in Pleasanton, and Parkway Lake in Coyote, which don't receive enough runoff to have an effect.

* It works: Some 30 wild turkeys trapped in Kansas have been transplanted to two areas in Northern California, near Hayfork in Trinity County and near north Weed in Siskiyou County, to establish seed flocks.

* Here it comes: The sport salmon season off the Bay Area coast starts Saturday.

* It's what they do: A mountain lion sneaked into the backyard of a home in Shingle Springs and killed two sheep, one of them pregnant.&lt;

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